privacy issues

[DeeDee Halleck]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/25/microsoft-switches-o.html


*Microsoft switches off privacy for Hotmail users in war-torn and repressive
states

*Cory Doctorow <http://www.boingboing.net/author/cory-doctorow-1/> at 11:36
PM Fri

For reasons unknown, Microsoft has changed the settings on Hotmail to
disable HTTPS for users in several countries including Bahrain, Morocco,
Algeria, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Hotmail
users in those countries can now be readily spied upon by ISPs and their
governments. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some good perspective:

Microsoft debuted the always-use-HTTPS feature for Hotmail in December of
2010, in order to give users the option of always encrypting their webmail
traffic and protecting their sensitive communications from malicious hackers
using tools such as Firesheep, and hostile governments eavesdropping on
journalists and activists. For Microsoft to take such an enormous step
backwards-- undermining the security of Hotmail users in countries where
freedom of expression is under attack and secure communication is especially
important--is deeply disturbing. We hope that this counterproductive and
potentially dangerous move is merely an error that Microsoft will swiftly
correct.

The good news is that the fix is very easy. Hotmail users in the affected
countries can turn the always-use-HTTPS feature back on by changing the
country in their profile to any of the countries in which this feature has
not been disabled, such as the United States, Germany, France, Israel, or
Turkey. Hotmail users who browse the web with Firefox may force the use of
HTTPS by default--while using any Hotmail location setting--by installing
the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox plug-in.

Microsoft Shuts off HTTPS in Hotmail for Over a Dozen
Countries<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/03/microsoft-shuts-https-hotmail-over-dozen-countries>


Previously:

   - EFF's latest HTTPS Everywhere plugin helps protect against
...<http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/23/effs-latest-https-ev.html#previouspost>
   -


--
http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20110326/c4457a70/attachment.html>